Tigers' reported addition of Davis adds more much-needed speed

Toronto Blue Jays left fielder Rajai Davis, right, steals third base as Philadelphia Phillies' Placido Polanco, left, applies a late tag during the third inning of an interleague baseball game in Toronto on Saturday, June 16, 2012. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)

The days of station-to-station baseball at Comerica Park might be at an end.

At least the Detroit Tigers are trying to address their lack of speed this offseason, picking up guys like Ian Kinsler and Steve Lombardozzi, and dropping guys like Prince Fielder, Jhonny Peralta, Matt Tuiasosopo and Ramon Santiago.

Tuesday, they apparently added another injection of speed to their roster, reportedly coming to terms with free-agent outfielder Rajai Davis on a two-year deal, worth $10 million.

It addresses the Tigers’ newest remaining “No. 1 need” — help for left field — that moved into the top spot after the Tigers signed closer Joe Nathan last week.

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They may have gotten a lower-end fix to the problem than some were expecting, though, with Sportsnet.ca’s Ben Nicholson-Smith reporting Tuesday morning that the team had agreed a two-year deal with the 33-year-old Davis. Fox Sports’ Jon Morosi had reported earlier from the Winter Meetings that the deal was imminent.

Davis will be ideal for a platoon with current left field incumbent Andy Dirks, who played all of last season with a lingering injury to his knee. Davis is a career .294 hitter against left-handed pitching (with a .779 OPS) and a .255 hitter (.650 OPS) vs. right-handers.

He does also bring some speed to the base paths, stealing more than 40 bases in five of the last six seasons. His 45 stolen bases last season are 10 more than the Tigers — who finished dead last in the AL — had as a team, and three more than the team leader, Austin Jackson (with eight), has had in the last three seasons combined.

“I like all this speed in the lineup with our big guy Miguel Cabrera,” Tigers fan Alex Russo tweeted at the slugger this afternoon.

To which Cabrera tweeted a reply: “Me too jajajajajajajaja.”

That speed will help an offense that — despite all its power potential and run scoring ability — was shut out an astronomical 12 times in the regular season (as many times as the disappointing 2008 team) and found itself spluttering in the postseason.

“Well, it’s unbelievable. I think we went four times 1-0. That’s hard to do. Some of that is, probably overall, our lack of speed,” former Tigers manager Jim Leyland said in September, before his team became the first-ever playoff bound team to be no-hit on its final game of the regular season.

“I know there was a game in Pittsburgh we got four hits in one inning, and didn’t score a run. So some of that’s who’s on the bases, and stuff like that. That’s some of it. Some of it is really good pitching. ... There’s been quite a few games where we got quite a few hits, and we didn’t score a whole lot of runs. Sometimes 11 hits and two runs, or something. That’s pretty uncommon.”

It’s a lower-budget route than some may have expected the Tigers — who have stretched the budget in recent seasons, signing players like Fielder to big-money contracts — to take, especially with big-name free agents like Jacoby Ellsbury and Shin-Soo Choo on the market.

Ellsbury signed a seven-year, $153-million contract with the Yankees.

Choo, apparently, is out of the Tigers plans now, too, even though some believe the Tigers are still in play, given the organization’s close relationship with Choo’s agent, Scott Boras.

General manager Dave Dombrowski has maintained that the team’s spending spree was likely over after the Nathan deal, hinting last week that he’d likely address the left-field issue with a lower-tier free-agent or a trade.

“I would think that we would not be involved in the big free-agent market,” Dombrowski said at the news conference to introduce Nathan.

“Again, we’re on Dec. 5, but I don’t anticipate any of the major names that our out there, that our name’s attached with, I don’t anticipate those be our signings.”

Davis may not have the on-base potential of either Choo or Ellsbury — his career on-base percentage is just .316 — but he has the speed to make a difference when he does get on. He also gives the Tigers a plausible pinch-running option on the days he does not start, something they did not have in the organization last year, after 2012’s rookie sensation, Quintin Berry, was released midseason in a 40-man-roster maneuver.

Even with the new additions, the Tigers did not become a speedy team overnight — Victor Martinez and Cabrera will still be planted in the middle of the lineup — but at least they moved in that direction, away from the plodding team they were for the last two seasons.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.